Saturday, March 08, 2014

Your Blog is Your New Resume

Posted by LuAnn Schindler at 9:34 AM

How often do you blog?

It's a valid question for writers and one worth thinking about. Honestly, I used to blog one main story a week - generally my newspaper column that's printed in several weeklies - and I would add a post or two to promote work in other publications.

I didn't have the time to blog daily because- here goes - I feel like I'm spread thin the way it is, so squeezing time to blog every day, plus promote it on social media sites, makes me even more tired.

It's not that I don't want to blog, but I manage a weekly newspaper (which means I write multiple articles a day), I teach journalism classes, and I have family responsibilities. Something has got to give; unfortunately, it looks like it's my blog. I haven't posted anything since the day after Christmas. Yikes!

But I've been thinking, and reading, that a writer's blog is a writer's new form of resume. It showcases your work and in some respects, shows how much time, thought and effort you put into a piece.

It's true. Your blog (or website) is your calling card, your introduction to the world, so you want to make a good first impression. Otherwise, why would you expect an editor or agent to take interest in you and your work?

Looks like my Saturday will be spent updating my resume. What about you?

2 Comments:

I go through such varying thoughts on blogging. In one way, it's a wonderful way to connect with other writers and be involved in a very supportive community. It's also very time-consuming. In order to gain readers, you need to be willing to visit quite a few other bloggers and leave comments-- a give and take situation. In today's publishing world, blogging is an essential piece of the platform process. But finding the balance so it doesn't suck up your writing creativity and time is key.

One of my goals this year is to mainstream my blog. I am looking at it like you are saying, like my calling card/resume. So, I updated it and took away all the busy-ness. Now I am trying to post a few times a week, but mostly they are short posts letting people know what I'm up to around the web--when I blog here, when I blog for my critique group, when I post a review for the newspaper. Then I will also update once in a while with book news and with children's book reviews. This way, I will have information that changes, but it's more like a website than a true blog. A true blog was driving me to drink. HA! No, Julie's right--to gain readers, unless you have some crazy niche (like cooking all of Julia Child's recipes) you have to work to keep your readers there.